Jack & The Beanstalk

It is always good to see youngsters onstage enjoying themselves whilst at the same time entertaining others and here at Scissett Stage Door they certainly did that as the majority of the cast were youngsters.

As with almost all pantos this one opened with the Fairy telling the story in rhyme and Ella Marie Slater did an excellent job of this, her diction was superb and every line was heard loud and clear.

As we know, the hero of this story is of course Jack and here Reece Shaw was outstanding as the have a go hero. Reece is excellent at both speaking the lines and singing the songs and the audience loved him from the start.

Joining Reece on stage as his love interest was Poppy Ferguson as Princess Davina, again a great speaking and singing voice and when she joined Jack in their duet it was outstanding.

Princess Davina’s parents, the King and Queen were portrayed by Sophie Broadhead and Izzie Thurlow respectively, who were able to be very regal throughout their performance and deliver the goods.

Of course, all pantos have to have a dame, usually played by a man, however here we had a break in tradition as The Dame was played by Catherine Hodgson, a young lady who was able to woo the entire audience with her superb acting and singing, Catherine had all the requirements to make the excellent dame she was.

As the story of Jack & the Beanstalk moves on, we visit the farm and its characters one of whom is Charlie played to the full by Nancy Dollive, who was able to come to life as the “simple Simon” character we usually see in pantos and when she was joined onstage by The Dame to sing Old Macdonald it went down a storm. Charlie was joined in the farm by Esmeralda, the cow played by Amelia Shaw, who, although did not have any lines to say, was still able to act the very sweet young character she was.

In the palace we meet the guards named Sergeant Bosh and Corporal Kosh played by Daisy Hilton and Darcy Hilton respectively, these two were able to throw themselves around the stage in their antics and thoroughly entertain the audience.

As we all know in this story, the Giant’s henchman, Rancid kidnaps the Princess and takes her to his lair in the clouds, he also manages to trick Jack into selling Esmeralda for a bag of beans, however little did he know the Fairy had turned the beans into magic beans which grew into the beanstalk which Jack climbs to rescue both Princess Davina and Esmeralda.

Rancid was played by Riley, apologies here as the programme only gives her first name, however he gave a great performance much to the delight of everyone watching.

The second of the Giant’s henchmen was Mickey the Menace played to perfection by Annabel Davies-Jones who, although was only small, although she did wear a very large hat, she was able to give a mammoth performance to entertain everyone.

The final of the trio in the clouds is the Giant himself who was played by Alex Kenyon who had a very sinister laugh and delivered his fee fi fo fum lines easily.

Joining everyone onstage in various roles such as the fairy and the villager was Delilah Dixon who did a great job of supporting her fellow cast members.

This was really community theatre at its heart, where all the cast and society members were all part of the local community, as were the scenery and costume makers as well as backstage workers and front of house members and long may you continue to do so.

Congratulations to everyone involved.

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